A little birdy came came by and dropped me a link to this thread. I still exist (somewhat), though I'm afraid my time here has largely ended... though I do pop in every few months if someone specifically brings something to my attention. ^^;
There's not a whole lot for me to say, myself... in my case, the magic simply departed, leaving in its place plenty of less than fond memories of trudging through reports, mod disputes, and the many other less than pleasant memories of administrative work. These things happen. I still keep in touch with those that care to do so, so there is that.
Honestly, I think people give too much credence to things such as having an early registration date or a high post count. I suppose it's nice to feel as though one is a part of an ELITE GROUP or PRIVATE CLUB or such, but... eh. Empty numbers are silly things to celebrate in the end. Post counts, registration dates, etc.
Anyhow... back to my cave. o3o

A little birdy came in and mentioned your shout-out, which I appreciated. Honestly, as far as this topic goes, I would say that you definitely qualify - your posts always tended to stick out to me, and left a very lasting impression. I was fairly saddened when I noticed you had stopped coming around, though I've since joined you in moving on (or, more accurately in my case, moving elsewhere) for the most part.
So yeah. Props and such. ^^

No offense meant, but the way you describe it, it almost sounds as though you're implying that everyone who lacks desire for sexual content does so out due to emotional trauma or some other sort of condition. This isn't quite the case, though... while that may be the case for some, just as there are plenty of folks that exist on every step of the heterosexual/homosexual spectrum, there to exist plenty of folks that just aren't sexual at all, or are so in only limited ways. The whole concept of general asexuality isn't all that well known or 'out there', but it is a thing.
Having said that though, considering how important sex is to most folks, it is something that would be best off being discussed openly and early on, to prevent any explosions later on down the line. As for myself, I am (and have been for quite some time) in a sex free relationship, and have been quite happy with it.

Yeah, it is a thing sadly. I think the headline to that article is very much worth highlighting as well, and is actually something that I had meant to mention but had forgotten to.
"Women in film: no improvement since the 1950s"
Kind of a big thing, that. ^^;
Amusing thing about that... I can't remember the exact source, but films with female focused casts tend (though I'm sure things like Hunger Games and such are exceptions to this) to be given significantly smaller budgets than those that are male dominated. I guess people don't think they're worth investing in? x_X
It's hard to say. It would be nice, but I think the immense male bias when it comes to creative control might be a bit of a road block to this, at least in the near future.

Let's pull some numbers. Mileage may vary depending on exact locale, but... o3o
http://i.imgur.com/yKvsGAE.png
Just a small amount of bias in favor of males here.
http://i.imgur.com/rwftw1l.png
Looking here, it looks like reality television is the only truly balanced category, with news coming in second. Everything else has a decently significant disparity.
You are right that they lack proper representation, though. Let's look at some more things.
http://i.imgur.com/A3XZMH3.png
Over sexualization much?
http://i.imgur.com/heXqWXs.png
I think this speaks for itself?
Images pulled from some of the sources below, all of which are worth taking a look at.
http://seejane.org/wp-content/uploads/key-findings-gender-roles-2013.pdf
http://seejane.org/wp-content/uploads/key-findings-gender-disparity-family-films-2013.pdf
http://womenintvfilm.sdsu.edu/files/2013_It's_a_Man's_World_Report.pdf
And, for a bit of further reading, you might take a look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celluloid_ceiling
Soo... yeah. Women are honestly under represented in mainstream media, with the representation they do have in media being less than ideal, both on and off screen.
I don't mean to start an argument or anything, but I think it is worth seeing the numbers where these things are considered, because ... well, the disparity is kind of significant, to say the least.
Edit: Apparently the hook that MLPF uses to download and re-host remote images went screwy, breaking my image embeds. Added regular links to the images, but have left the broken embeds in place just in case the hook magically starts to work at some point. :V

Wow. That's mildly insane. If it's actually enforced, that would effect a decent number of trans folks I know that have no intention of undergoing any sort of surgery, one of whom is planning on moving to Canada in the next few years. Here's hoping that reasonable minds will come out on top. x_X
To add to this, not only do they have a higher chance of being raped, but in many situations they'll run into a lot of hurdles in trying to bring the rapist to justice, and could themselves suffer consequences in attempting to do so, or in simply reporting what occurred, particularly at colleges and similar places where sexual assault runs massively rampant.
So...
This is something that cannot be stated enough.

Good rant, I'd say... and on a matter worth ranting about.
People like to get defensive about silly things. Talk about the challenges and issues that a group that someone isn't a part of faces? Lots of people that I've observed clam up and get offended. How dare you accuse* them of benefiting from the privilege associated with their gender/race/orientation? How dare you imply that their achievements in life were anything but the result of their sweat, blood, and tears, and that they may have had some degree of advantage that others lacked! How dare you imply that others that have reached the same heights as they may have had to work harder in one way or another to do so! Etc.
* whether or not any accusation was actually levied is irrelevant.
As a guy, are there some gender issues that impact me? Well, yeah, sure - but there are a whole hell of a lot more that I don't have to deal with as a guy. Not only that, but those things that I don't have to deal with tend to be a whole hell of a lot more significant than that which women tend to have to face, the sheer number of which tends to be mildly staggering. So... when I see guys whine that something like feminism is exclusionary by nature, or whatever, it's grating as heck.

Sadly this is a common thing that isn't limited strictly to feminists... it's always easy to overlook and not notice people that are being reasonable, but far less easy to do so with unreasonable vocal minorities. You can pass by twenty good folks without realizing it, but the moment you walk by someone loud and obnoxious, they're going to have your full attention.
As for the media, who wants to watch calm, quiet, and reasonable stuff on the news and whatnot? That's boring! The people want to be entertained! What better way to entertain someone than to give people something to mock and laugh at? Honestly, it's obnoxious as hell, and does little more than breed toxicity.
Yeah, ditto. For a long time the only real exposure I ever had to feminism was limited to people that were on the extreme side of things... but, really, they're the ones that scream the loudest, and so are good at training people to have knee-jerk reactions to any mention of feminism and similar things, as has been illustrated quite nicely more than once in this thread.
Not only that, but people often find it easier to simply cover their ears with their hands, shake their head, and deny that there is any degree of inequality or injustice in their world, let alone that they may themselves be a part of it in some way, shape, or form.

I don't typically get involved in these sorts of discussions (especially not here, of all places), but I figured I may as well throw my two cents in on this before fading back into obscurity.
As has already been mentioned, I don't think there are many that would praise the Bechdel test as being the single most important thing under the sun in determining the quality and worth of a movie... having said that though, I don't think it's right to simply brush it entirely aside due to the fact that it isn't perfect, as it does highlight some amusing trends. One such example is the fact that movies that pass it, on everage, have lower budgets than those that do not (and, to add to that, that movies that pass it tend to bring in more money than those that do not, as described here http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-dollar-and-cents-case-against-hollywoods-exclusion-of-women/). This doesn't come as a massive surprise though, considering things such as what is described here: http://thehathorlegacy.com/why-film-schools-teach-screenwriters-not-to-pass-the-bechdel-test/ and the fact that an extreme majority of creative positions in Hollywood are staffed by men (which is described here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celluloid_ceiling).
As for the complaints about MPAA ratings, again, no such system is perfect. Just as some movies may be penalized a bit too harsly at times, others have gotten away with a bit too much given the ratings that they've received. The same can honestly be said for any ratings system, really, though that's honestly a topic for another thread.
TL;DR: just because something isn't without flaws doesn't mean it isn't worth some degree of consideration. Perfection tends to be a rare thing no matter where you look for it.

You've been a model admin, your rest will be well deserved.
Now the question is... how long now until all of the people that were around while I was on staff are gone? ^^;
Seven left, once Arty is gone.

I do crawl out of my hole once in a rare while and lurk around these parts.
This is a topic I feel very strongly about, so I couldn't stop myself from commenting. Harassment in any shape or form is a dreadful thing, one that can cause more grief than one might imagine for those that find themselves targeted. Sadly, a lot of people look at it with an extremely apathetic eye.
And I'm your favorite? Yay! Hugs?

I'm glad to see that empathy and care are truly universal traits. Remind me to withhold my sympathy if you ever fall under some sort misfortune.
Words are powerful things. They can comfort, they can cause pain, and they can even kill. Used in certain ways, they can cut deeper than a knife, and bruise more than a baseball bat.
Meh.